Lilia writes: I am so glad I live in Atlanta. Last night’s meet up with Alan Lee was so much fun! It was fun to think that my experience with meet up’s and getting to know other Ringers began with the Atlanta Moot back in June 2004 when I met Alan Lee for the first time.
I arrived two hours early due to my astronomy lab getting out early and had a clear way all the way downtown. So I just hung around till about 5:45 when Shuya arrived. We both already had our books, so we didn’t need to get them. About 6:15 we took our seats in a little area they had set up for Mr. Lee to do his presentation. We found out later that if you had bought your book there, you got a number to get in line for signing. If not, you had to go to the back of the line when he began signing. Oh well. RingersReprise, djdeathkiss and FoG all showed up about 6:30. Then later on, Elycia, her husband and Fiver showed up. (not together) But the seats were already full by that time. I think all in all there were about 50 people, maybe more, I’m not the best with numbers. I was actually surprised there weren’t more.
Once they got the projector set up Mr. Lee did a half hour or so slide show about his work on the films. Showed before and after shots, what he did, paintings and so on. It was very interesting to hear. And much of it wasn’t in the books. Once he finished he opened it up to questions. Some one asked if he had any other works he was doing and he said he’s working on Greek Mythology. I can’t remember what though. He said he would like to work on the Hobbit if it ever comes about. (Which he seemed to believe it would). In answer to a question about favorite artist and who inspired him, he mentioned, Turner, Rembrandt, DaVinci, Bottecelli and others.
Then the signing began about 8:00. As we didn’t have tickets we just stood/sat around for awhile and talked. We finally got in line sometime after 9:00. There was not a big rush or a huge amount of people, so this worked out well. We stood in line, talked some more.
We finally got up to the table to meet Alan Lee. He was so nice and seemed much more comfortable then when we met him in June for the Atlanta TORn Moot. More used to it I suppose. I got my book signed and told him how much I liked his art and what my favorite painting was. Then after a few others got there books signed, we all got a group picture. The Atlanta LOTR Meet Up group, and that should be up on his blog. He was, as last time, just as kind and friendly as he could be. He is so welcoming and you don’t feel at all afraid of him. He took the time to sign every ones books and some people had a lot of books (a couple of people with a large box or bag full) Even though we were the last ones and the last to leave, he was still very polite and happy to sign for us.
Chapter 11 did a great job handling all the people and even though we were so late in leaving (about 9:45) they didn’t rush us out and handled the crowd very well.
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Rebekah writes: Join us for a costume party with Alan Lee at the University Bookstore, October 31st! Come dressed in your hobbity finest for a grand time with Alan Lee, compliments of the University Bookstore and the Northwest Tolkien Society! The celebration begins at 7pm with games, a costume contest, food, & prizes! What better way to spend a halloween evening than in the company of one of the greatest illustrators of our time? [washington.edu] or [nwtolkiensociety.org]
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Meet Alan Lee tonight in Austin, TX at ‘BookPeople’ (603 N. Lamar). Alan will be signing copies of his latest book ‘The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook’ starting at 7pm. Alan is also keeping a travel blog of his book tour exclusively with TORN right here! [Alan Lee Travel Blog]
A BIG thank you to JPB for setting up the Blog for Alan’s book tour, you did a great job!!
More tour dates and locations are available here. [More]
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‘Lost’, featuring Dominic Monaghan, is on ABC tonight at 9PM EST. [abc.go.com]
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Garfeimao writes: Ok, since most of the TORN staff were in PA for Calisuri’s wedding, those on the East Coast missed Alan Lee’s NYC appearance and I was the only one who made it to the signing in Philadelphia. The signing was sponsored by Joseph Fox bookshop, but was held at the Friend’s Select school in the auditorium there. The acoustics were nice, so when the Q&A session began, it was easy to hear most people’s questions. [More]
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Garfeimao writes: Ok, since most of the TORN staff were in PA for Calisuri’s wedding, those on the East Coast missed Alan Lee’s NYC appearance and I was the only one who made it to the signing in Philadelphia. The signing was sponsored by Joseph Fox bookshop, but was held at the Friend’s Select school in the auditorium there. The acoustics were nice, so when the Q&A session began, it was easy to hear most people’s questions.
Alan was quite descriptive regarding the creative process and working with Peter Jackson and the WETA artists. The actual Sketchbook is filled with loads of images, both those images included in the films, and those that were looked at and discarded from the film. It’s a wonderful view of the type of work that goes into a creative process such as filmmaking from a book. It’s clear that numerous images were drawn of characters, locations, costuming, etc, and then only very specific items chosen and used in the film. There is some truly breathtaking pictures in the book, so I highly recommend it to any and all Ringers out there.
I’m including a few pictures from the event, including Alan talking from the podium, Alan taking pictures of the crowd for the Blog he is keeping on our site, and fans outside the auditorium during the signing portion. I got to speak with a few friends I know from previous events and made a new friend with someone from Colombia. Always nice to see Tolkien has meaning for people overseas in non-English speaking countries, so that was a pleasant surprise. So if you have the time, go out to see Alan Lee speak and show slides, get his amazing new book, and hang out with fellow fans.
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